Hey olive77!
I had one for a while. You can find my thread on it here....
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...plus-integrated-help-with-adjustments.875555/
I had no trouble driving 4Ω speakers with it.
Soundwise I found it to be a very smooth and enjoyable amp.
Yes, the phono stage was excellent! (Mine had a switch on the bottom to switch between MM and MC, this switch required cleaning a couple times and DO NOT switch it while unit is on unless you want a heart attack) It really shined in MM mode. MC was just good. IIRC there are places to add loading resistors but mine were empty so I believe it was a stock 100Ω loading in MC mode.
If you're looking at the "Elite" it's only 40 watts (into 8Ω) so just a little more than your Kenwood.
If you're looking at the "Elite Plus" it's 70 watts (into 8Ω) so should have a little more oomph for those Advents.
Sorry, I can't remember how much the power increases into a 4Ω load.
I'm not going to discourage you from this amp because I thought it was great sounding, I thought it looked great, and I really get a lot of enjoyment out of vintage gear.
However, I am going to give you some cautionary points....
- Be aware that there is very little information out there about these if you need to have it serviced....
(PS Audio no longer supports these units, something about being from before Paul and Stan split)
- and it doesn't have a very user friendly build if you want to work on it yourself. There were some parts of the preamp section that I never could access because I couldn't figure out how to disassemble it (and I am pretty clever). And I never did figure out how to adjust bias and DC offset (but mine was good so I left it alone).
- The build quality, while ok for the time, doesn't really hold up in the long run. I had to repair a fair amount of old and stressed solder joints.
- The separate power supply is really just the power transformers. The power supply rectification takes place inside the main chassis. It is also split into two sections. One runs the amp and the other runs all the low level (pre, phono, headphone amp). I totally recapped mine, but I was never able to find replacements for the main amp filter caps, they are a very unusual physical size and space was too cramped for creative solutions.
So I would say that if the unit you're looking at appears to be in good working order then it's a great amp. Just go in eyes wide open. My suggestions for demo'ing are to see how hot it gets on the heatsinks at moderate listening levels after 30 minutes. That should give an idea of the bias settings. Mine would get just slightly warm and was balanced between the left and right heatsink. If one side gets hotter than the other that might be a red flag. Conversely if they don't warm up all they bias might have drifted too low. Also, if you can take a DMM with you and check the DC offset after it has been running for a while that would be a good thing to do too.
Hope that helps.
